Tag Archives: mitre cuts

I recently did some improvements around the house. My wife and I took down some floor-to-ceiling mirrors in the living room. Repainted the room, installed one of the windows sideways and framed it in pine. Article on that project coming soon. Another added feature was adding crown molding around the living room and eating area.

I’m no stranger to wood-working, in fact I have built quite a few items in recent years but this was the first time that I was installing crown molding. So like most of my computer skills that I have learned over the years, it was to the computer to find some tutorials on how to set up the saw for crown molding mitre cuts.

I must have searched through at least 20 websites trying to find the right settings. Oh the settings were out there, but it seemed so complicated. They had bevel angles and mitre angles for every conceivable angle. I’m trying to do a few inside corners and a few outside corners, why soooo many angles?

Then I went to the saw, I remembered that the saw had a little diagram on it. Perfect!!! I don’t know who wrote/drew that diagram. Nothing was coming close to lining up the right way. In fact, after following it step by step for an inside corner, the outcome I got was for an outside corner. Ugh!! OK, let’s take a look again and try the directions for an outside corner, maybe that will produce an inside corner. Nope, didn’t work. Frustration mounts higher and higher and my moldings become shorter and shorter.

Back inside and back to searching more tutorials and videos. I finally come across one video, and unfortunately I didn’t bookmark his video, but I did draw on a piece of scrap paper the simplest of directions that he posted. Back to the garage for a test run.

Viola!!! It worked on the first try!!! New found excitement and back inside to install the crown. And no matter, do not lose that piece of scrap paper.

Here’s the steps that I did to set up and never make another cut in the wrong direction:

The Bevel Set Up: My saw has a “stop” for the bevel angle at 33.8 degrees (once it’s set, it stays the same)

The Mitre Set Up: My saw has a “stop” for the mitre angle at 31.6 degrees (left or right depending on the mitre cut in diagram)

The molding lays flat on the saw no matter which corner is being cut.

See diagrams below to set the direction of the saw blade.

Now I know that we didn’t account for spring angles and we didn’t set up for non-45-degree angles. I needed to put crown up in a rectangle room with a flat ceiling. I had a couple of outside corners to deal with because of a heating duct. All-in-all, once I had my cheat sheet, I didn’t waste anymore crown. I hope this helps you if you are a first timer to installing crown molding.

Feel free to print out the two images above and keep near your saw for future reference.

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About Me

I am a business owner and have been in business for myself since 1999. A few years back, I decided that I wanted to learn about web design and graphic design. I am self-taught by searching the internet for different ways to do things.

This blog is about what I have learned over the years and complied into one source. I welcome your thoughts and comments.

I am available for hire, you can find my web and graphic design page here: My Web Design Site